Local Contexts: Traditional Knowledge Labels is a project developed with Kim Christen, Local Contexts (www.localcontexts.org) is an initiative to support Native, First Nations, Aboriginal, Metis, Inuit and Indigenous communities in the management of their intellectual property and cultural heritage specifically within the digital environment. Local Contexts provides legal, extra-legal, and educational strategies (including TK Labels) for navigating copyright law and the public domain status of this valuable cultural heritage. By providing strategic resources and practical solutions, Local Contexts and its partners are working towards a new paradigm of rights and responsibilities that recognizes the inherent sovereignty that Indigenous communities have over their cultural heritage.

The TK Labels are a community-based tool that offers an educative and informational strategy to help non-community users of traditional knowledge understand the importance and significance of cultural materials, even when these are in the public domain and appear as though can be shared and used by everyone. This is often not the case for traditional knowledge, and labeling is designed to identify and clarify which material has community-specific, gendered, and high-level restrictions. This is especially with respect to important sacred and/or ceremonial material, material that has seasonal conditions of use and materials specifically designed for sharing and outreach with others. The TK Labels provide an option for correcting the public historical record. For instance, they can be used to include information that might be considered ‘missing,’ including the name of the community who remains the cultural custodian of the material, what conditions of use are deemed appropriate, and how to contact the relevant family, clan or community to arrange appropriate permissions.

IN THE NEWS

On December 13th, 2018 Local Contexts has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant spanning from 2019-2021. The project is titled Local Contexts: Collaborative Curation, Training and Education for Indigenous Collections, and will be bringing comprehensive training programs to Indigenous museums and collections across the country.

On May 10th, 2018 an historic Memorandum of Understanding was finalized between the Penobscot Nation and the University of Maine after a decade of collaborations. The MOU formalizes cultural heritage work done between the Penobscot and the University, and Jane Anderson worked with the Penobscot to help facilitate this agreement. The full article may be read here.

On May 15th, 2018 at 10 AM Jane Anderson was interviewed by Donna Loring on her radio show Wabanaki Windows. She was joined by Professor Darren Ranco, University of Maine and Penobscot Nation and Ambassador Awendela Dana, Penobscot Nation to discuss the historic MOU between the Penobscot Nation and the University of Maine and the implementation of the TK Labels that are part of that MOU. Link to the live stream can be found here.

On June 4th, 2018 the Library of Congress will be launching its initial TK Labels on their digital catalog. The Labels will be attached to selected phonographic recordings from the Passamaquoddy/Jesse Walter Fewkes Collection. More information and articles forthcoming.